Joaquin Castro Charges Up Texas Delegates at DNC

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A day and a half after San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro’s rousing keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, his congressional hopeful brother, Joaquin Castro, made an unscheduled appearance before the Texas delegation.

Despite the twin brothers’ newfound national attention — they have been the darlings of the cable news circuit in the last 48 hours — Joaquin said he and Julián are committed to Texas, and to turning it blue.

“Julián and I are very committed to doing everything we can to make sure in the next several years we can elect a Democratic senator, a Democratic governor, a Democratic lieutenant governor, and to start to win races again,” Castro said.   

Castro was preceded at the Thursday breakfast by President Obama’s trade ambassador, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, who said his job was simple: to thank Texas delegates for not giving up on turning his home state blue. “A lot of people say, ‘Why do we even bother to go? It’s a red state,’” Kirk said. “It’s getting more purple. It’s coming. It’s changing.”

A line-up of Texas members of Congress followed, including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who said Republican Gov. Rick Perry is “a nice guy, got a nice family, got a nice bunch of hair,” but “we cannot continue to live in a state that is ridiculed on the national level.”  

The morning meeting — the last one before Obama’s Thursday night acceptance speech — wasn’t all political pomp. Castro joked that he has been confused for the San Antonio mayor “about 200 times” in the last day, 20 times more than usual. The best way to tell them apart?

“He’s a minute older, and I’m a minute better-looking than he is,” Castro joked of his brother.